Page 59 of The Chosen One Universe: Volume One

Henry nodded his eyes filling with tears.

Vaughn moved beside him on the couch and curled his arm over Henry’s shoulders.

“Let’s make a deal, okay? This is a deal between me, you two, and Sam. Got it?”

Sam met Vaughn’s eyes and smiled. God, he was gorgeous like this. So calm and caring and just…Sam sighed and pulled Ben more tightly against him.

“Well, I’m interested. Tell me about this deal,” Sam said.

“I’m thinking we need a snack stash.”

Ben was listening intently, even though he was still holding onto Sam like a life preserver.

“A snack stash?” Sam asked. “What’s that?”

Henry seemed intrigued as well.

“A snack stash is where we’ll put snacks that the cubs can have any time they want them. No questions asked. Now, I’m telling this to you guys and not Ollie, because let’s face it—”

“Ollie would eat everything,” Henry said.

“And not his vegetables,” Ben added.

“Exactly. But we can put you guys in charge of the snack stash, so if anyone is hungry or just gets a little worried sometime about not having enough food, there will always be something right there for you to eat.”

It was a fantastic idea. Ben was way too responsible to let the other kids abuse it, but it would let him retain a little bit of the control he’d lost. And since Ben was the one who needed the most food, he’d always have snacks available for himself as well.

“There’s only one problem,” Sam said.

“What’s that?”

“I want a snack stash, too.”

Henry snickered and leaned into Vaughn. “Nana said Sam has a sweet tooth.”

“And Nana’s never wrong about these things.”

Ben bumped his forehead against Sam’s, seeking reassurance once more that Sam was okay and not upset with them in any way.

“I do have a sweet tooth. Now, should we come up with a few rules about snack stashes? Ben, do you have any ideas?”

Their big bear looked bashful again and curled himself down onto Sam’s shoulder. He mumbled something against Sam’s shirt that had Vaughn biting his lip to hold back a laugh.

“I didn’t hear you, Ben, which meant Sam didn’t either. He mumbles when he’s scared,” Henry explained seriously. “But we don’t have to be scared, Ben. Sam’s not mad and neither is Alpha.”

“Not mad at all. I’m sad you were hungry and didn’t tell us, that’s all. I’ll never tell you that you can’t eat when you’re hungry.”

Sam rubbed Ben’s back and thankfully felt the boy beginning to relax a little. He turned his head a little so they could hear him better. “I’ve been really hungry since we’ve been here.”

“Oh, Ben. You should have told us.”

Ben shrugged. “But we’re eating more than we ever had…before. And I don’t know why. And I don’t want you to think I’m going to eat everything. Or not have enough for the other kids.”

The damage was so deep in this kid, in all of them.

Vaughn’s eyes changed to that startling blue. His wolf was just as angry as Sam was. “Well, what’s happening to you is completely normal. You’re a bear, Ben. That means that at certain times of the year, you’re going to be more hungry than normal. You’ve never had a chance to find that out before because of how you’ve had to live, but in the spring and later in the fall? You’re going to be hungry a lot.”

Ben frowned a little like he was trying to make sense of Vaughn’s words.